


Christmas Party

by DangerRollins



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Christmas, Christmas Party, F/M, Family, Fluff, Team Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-09-02 00:17:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16775809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DangerRollins/pseuds/DangerRollins
Summary: Maggie finally gets to host the neighborhood Christmas party.





	Christmas Party

"Enid, please don't let Hershel get crumbs all over his nice clothes before the first guests get here!" Maggie sighed as she saw Enid trying to sneakily give baby Hershel a few Christmas cookies. "Dad, how are those mashed potatoes coming?" She turned her attention to her dad, and let out another harsh breath as she saw that his back was turned to her and he was quite obviously munching on something—probably the brownies she'd been begging him to leave alone for more than half the day. "You know you don't need that. Your diabetes—"

"My diabetes will be put out of my mind until tomorrow," he drawled, turning to face her and trying to look innocent. "One night of fun isn't going to hurt anything at all!"

"I bet that's what he said to mama the night you were conceived," Beth whispered, a small giggle escaping her before she cleared her throat and got back to frosting the cake.

"Besides," Hershel let out a small burp before sending Maggie an unconvincing smile. "I didn't even have anything."

"There are brownie crumbs in your beard." Maggie rolled her eyes before walking to the other side of the kitchen so she could check on what was in the oven. "Finish those mashed potatoes!" She instructed as she pulled the oven door down. She grinned as she noticed her chicken dressing looked perfect.

This year was the first year that she was hosting a Christmas party for the neighborhood, the first year that she got to be the one in charge of cooking all the food, and the first year that she actually felt like an adult. Twenty-nine—at least that's the age she told everyone she was although people were starting to get a bit skeptical as she'd been saying that for almost four years now—and this was her first time hosting a Christmas get together. She couldn't believe it.

There'd always been an excuse in the past.

She'd lived in this neighborhood for half of her life and one thing she learned pretty quickly was that they loved their damn festivities. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentine's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, you name it and there was some type of party being thrown for it. People took turns hosting, but she'd never gotten to. The general rule was that you had to be over the age of twenty-eight in order to be eligible to host anything, because in the words of Carol and Jacqui, 'Ain't no young buck about to host nothing in this neighborhood—ruining the food and trying to party instead of grubbing.' It was mostly Jacqui who'd said that, but Carol wholeheartedly agreed.

After she turned twenty-eight, she still didn't get to host anything because she was always either too busy with Hershel, who she'd had when she'd turned twenty-nine, or she was busy getting married, something her and Glenn had finally, finally gotten to when she was thirty, or she had food poisoning or she had to leave town for some reason or someone else had just already offered to host whatever get together they'd decided to have, etc etc. There was always something, it seemed.

Well, not this time. She was finally getting to host a neighborhood Christmas party, and she was ecstatic, especially since Christmas happened to be her favorite holiday!

"My Mac and cheese turned out pretty well, huh?" Enid grinned as she came into the kitchen, Hershel tucked against her hip. Maggie sent her a look. Hershel was six, almost seven now, and he was already spoiled. She'd begged Enid to stop carrying him around a thousand times, but she just wouldn't. "Put that big baby down." She grinned, tickling Hershel until he squirmed out of Enid's arms himself. "And your Mac and cheese? You put it in the pan, popped it into the oven, and then went on about your business. I was the one that kept an eye on it, that means that my Mac and cheese turned out pretty well." She smirked.

"Yeah, okay, but nobody's ever put Mac and cheese into a pan as good as I did." Enid grinned before chasing baby Hershel out of the kitchen again.

"Where on earth is Glenn?" Maggie sighed, placing her hands on her hips as she glanced around the kitchen, realizing he'd been missing for almost an hour now.

"He went out to buy some sweet potato pies to replace the ones he ate—the ones you told him not to. He's getting Patti Labelle though, so it's okay." Hershel chuckled to himself. "Maybe you could text him and ask him to bring back some brownies as well?"

Maggie sighed and looked up toward the ceiling, wondering if she could find a family on eBay to replace the crazy one she had now. She smiled to herself at the thought. She could never find anyone good enough to replace any one of her family members.

"Hey, Carl just texted and told me that everyone's gonna start coming over in about thirty minutes," Beth said before licking the icing off her fingers. "I'm off kitchen duty til then. I need to get ready—and you do too!" She jogged out of the kitchen and up the stairs to go find something nice to wear. Enid frowned, calling after her, "Carl texted you?!"

"Yeah!" Was the only answer she got back before hearing a door slam. Enid rolled her eyes before pulling out her phone. She hasn't gotten a text from Carl all day. All week, actually.

Carl and her had been best friends since they met. They were both only preteens at the time, and they'd spent the years getting to know each other and slowly but surely becoming best friends. Now they were both experiencing their last year of being teenagers together and it was...fine. Their friendship had been going just fine until six or so months ago when Carl decided he wanted to have a humongous crush on Beth, who happened to be like a sister to Enid. Now he spent ninety percent of his time trying to find every excuse to talk to her and pretending Enid didn't even exist.

"Enid, come on, don't worry about Carl. You two are gonna see each other tonight and I'm sure you'll talk things out," Maggie sent Enid a knowing smile as she walked out of the kitchen and into the living room to pat her on the shoulder. "Why don't you go get ready too? Everything's almost done so I don't really need any help with anything."

"Alright." Enid sulked.

Maggie smiled, turning to head back into the kitchen, but she stopped short upon seeing baby Hershel standing in front of the entrance, pouting. She raised a brow, silently questioning him, and he let out a dramatic sigh. "Judith's coming over." He announced.

"She is."

"And Andre, and RJ."

"Mhm."

"You're gonna make me share my toys again," he whined. "Andre and RJ play too rough and Judith's better than me at all my games!"

"Andre and RJ are only four. They're not so great at handling things with care yet. When you were four, you threw everything you could get your little claws on, glass or not." She smirked. "And Judith's ten. Of course, she's a little better at some of your games—"

"All. All of my games." He grumbled. Maggie squatted down in front of him and rubbed a few cookie crumbs off his cheek before bopping his nose. "Well, there'll hardly be any time to play anyway. Some of our neighbors haven't had the time to see you properly in a few months. They'll be too busy squeezing your cheeks to let you sneak off and play."

Hershel winced at the mere thought of it. "You always know how to make me feel better." He muttered before sulking off. Maggie couldn't hold in her giggles as she watched him begrudgingly climb up the stairs, two at a time.

"I'm home, babe! Just had to go get some gas!" She heard Glenn shout soon after. She rolled her eyes as she headed back into the kitchen and placed her hands on her hips once she saw him, hurriedly shoving the snacks he'd bought onto plates, as if she magically wouldn't be able to tell the difference between something she made and something Patti Labelle made if the packaging wasn't in sight. "It took you an hour to get gas?"

He jumped as he noticed her standing in the kitchen already and hurriedly threw the snack boxes away before standing in front of the trash can. "It's a big car." His voice cracked as it almost always did when he was lying.

"Give it up, son." Hershel shook his head as he took a sip of his eggnog and then let out a hearty laugh.

"Go get dressed, the guests will be here in just a few minutes." She shook her head at him as she picked up a towel and swatted at him as he passed by.

Upstairs, Beth had just finished putting her clothes on after a quick shower, and Enid had found her way into the bathroom to grab her favorite perfume, but she froze at the door upon seeing what Beth had on.

"You're wearing that?" She questioned, furrowing her brow. Beth's dress was beautiful. Sparkly and red, and it went well with her pale skin. It wasn't skin tight, but it wasn't all that loose either. She paired it with some black wedge heels which went well with the sparkly black bow she'd put into her beautifully curled blonde locks.

"I've been waiting all year to break this one out." Beth grinned. She loved Christmas, and every year she dressed up in Christmas themed outfits all throughout December. She loved fashion, photography, aesthetics, and she loved scrapbooking. Dressing up every December was great because she got to take lots of pictures in her beautiful, well thought out outfits and put them all in her beloved scrapbooks. She posted look-books on Instagram too, and she was starting to gain a pretty large following, which she was happy about. It seemed her career in fashion was just about to take off, especially if she kept attracting attention from Instagram followers and YouTube subscribers.

She was going all out this year. She wanted this year's looks to be the best ones yet! The Christmas party, held on December fifteenth every year, was the perfect time to wear her second-best outfit. The first best was always saved for Christmas.

"I'm...Gonna go change." Enid sighed, nearly speed walking out of the bathroom and into her own room. Beth followed her hurriedly, a small frown making its way onto her face. "Why?" She questioned.

"Your outfits so much better than mine. I'm pretty sure I wore this ugly Christmas sweater last year too." Enid rolled her eyes as she hurriedly flipped through the clothes in her closet.

"So what? It's a nice sweater."

"Not as nice as that dress. You look gorgeous and I look like a slob."

"I'm only so dressed up cause it's what I do. I'm trying to get into the fashion industry, I've gotta be on my P's and Q's at all times. I love dressing up, but honestly if it wasn't for the fact that we're probably gonna take a billion pictures tonight, I'd be wearing just a pair of jeans and a sweater myself."

It went into one ear and out the other. Enid's focus was on finding something to wear that was better than what she had on, but she didn't think she'd have any such luck. She didn't have that many Christmas clothes, and what she did have was ugly, old, or wrinkly. She only owned two dresses and three skirts, none of which were in Christmas colors.

"The Grinch has better luck figuring out what to wear!" She complained, plopping down on her bed in frustration. "You can borrow something from my closet." Beth shrugged.

"I'm a few sizes bigger than you," Enid mumbled.

"And still gorgeous," Beth reassured her before continuing. "That doesn't matter anyway. I always buy my clothes a little too big unless I just want them to be skin tight, which I usually don't. Plus, I've got a few clothes that I bought just to put some designs on. Those might be in your size!"

Enid hummed as she thought about it for a minute. "Would you do my makeup too?" She asked shyly. She rarely ever wore makeup, except on special occasions like...somebody's funeral.

"Sure...If you tell me why you're trying so hard tonight." Beth sent her a knowing smile and Enid let out a small huff. "I just want to be cute." She shrugged. "Nothing wrong with that, is there?"

"Of course not!" Beth grinned. "But we've been to tons of these things and you never wanna dress up. Must be some reason you're getting a dolled up tonight...Is there a certain someone who you like showing up tonight?" She wiggled her brows.

Enid groaned loudly and hopped off of the bed. "Stop it! I know what you think and it's wrong!"

"Be honest, Enid. Do you like a certain Grimes boy?"

"Ricks nice, but he's got a whole family," Enid answered, a blank expression on her face. Beth scoffed and stood up as well. "Do you like Carl, Enid?"

"No," Enid sighed. "I really don't. But...I wish he'd notice me again. We used to be so close and now we barely talk, and when we do we only talk about you. I wish he was still my friend and not my friend with a crush on you." She pouted. "I know that's childish, but--"

"That's not childish. Trust me, I've been there and lived through that. It sucks! But look, you two have been best buds since you were younger and that's not gonna change just because of a stupid crush that might go away as quick as it came." Beth looked a little unsettled at the thought of Carl not liking her anymore, but Enid decided to ignore it for now. "You don't need to dress all up for him to notice you. I'm sure if you just tell him how you feel, everything will be right back on track. He would never intentionally make you feel like he's ignoring you."

"I guess, but I don't know, it'd be embarrassing to go up to him and say, 'Hey, Grimes, give me attention, please! Thanks!' I mean, how awkward would that be?"

"Not that awkward." Beth shrugged. "He'd just say okay and then y'all would end up playing video games for six hours. No big deal."

Enid laughed and shook her head. "I'll talk to him, but I still want you to do my makeup. None of that bright red lipstick you like to wear though. Too much for me."

Beth squealed happily as she realized she'd still be able to pamper Enid, though she'd have to work quickly if she wanted to have enough time to do both her and Enid's makeup. Luckily, she'd become a pro at doing a full face of makeup in just fifteen minutes.

********

An hour later, and the party had officially begun. Once everyone had arrived, they'd fixed their plates and then spread out throughout the house and the front and back yards to eat. Rick and Michonne had settled into the rocking chairs on the front porch with their plates, and Maggie and both her Hershels had joined them along with Tyreese, Sasha, Bob, Daryl, Carol, and Ezekial. Maggie joked that the only reason Rick and Michonne ever bothered visiting her was because they loved her chairs, and that was the start of many jokes told over the sound of utensils scraping against plates and people smacking as they ate the delicious food she and her family had prepared.

Glenn had sat on the living room floor with most all the neighborhood kids, Jesus, Tara, Eugene, Rosita and Abraham, and Noah. Abraham looked the most ridiculous of them all, his huge frame and bright red hair the first thing anyone noticed when they looked into the living room. He was surrounded by kids, watching cartoons that they couldn't hear over the Christmas music that was blasting throughout the house. Eugene looked second most ridiculous. He was tucked near a chair in the corner of the small living room space, practically twisted into a pretzel as he avoiding being touched by the children. If there was one thing he feared, it was kids. They were loud, obnoxious, and kinda stupid. They were still developing too, and that meant most of them hadn't fully grasped what was right and wrong and, to be honest, kids and serial killers were just about in the same category if you asked Eugene.

"You have gotten so big!" Rosita said for the thousandth time as she squeezed RJ's cheeks and then Andre's. They both figured that baby Hershel had to be glad he wasn't in here right now, but he'd probably be getting his cheeks pinched and squeezed before the night was over if he hadn't already.

"You saw us last week, Aunt Rose." Andre muttered as respectfully as he could, remembering what his parents had told them about being nice earlier.

"It's been a long week." She cooed in her best baby voice. Rosita was a tough woman. Sassy, classy, always ready to handle her business and put someone in their place, but damn if she didn't have a humongous soft spot for kids, especially her friends' kids. She and Abraham had been trying for a while to have one of their own, and considering the fact that she'd woken up puking like hell for the last three days in a row, they figured they'd finally succeeded.

"There's always the argument that Batman is better than Superman, but he's literally not even close. He's just a bat. Big deal." Jesus rolled his eyes before taking a bite of his Mac and Cheese. The sound of disagreement filled the air as Tara, Glenn, the twins and Judith all shook their heads at him. "Batman is the coolest superhero there is! You're crazy!" Judith huffed.

"Well, let's not get carried away. If we really wanna get technical, the only truly iconic hero would be Spiderman." Glenn cut in quickly. Tara scoffed and threw her hands up. "He's just a damn spider!"

"Language!" Noah hit her on the shoulder. "Thank you!" Jesus yelled. "He's just a spider just like how Batman is just a bat."

"He shoots spider webs out of his hands and swings around the city saving everyone. How awesome can you get?" RJ rolled his eyes as he pushed his plate away, no longer hungry. These delusional people and their stupid heroes had taken his appetite away.

"Mr. and Mrs. Incredible are the only heroes I care about," Noah mumbled, shaking his head. They all shook their heads at him, upset that he wasn't much of a fan of any comic books or superheroes. "Alright fine, you wanna talk about an awesome comic character? Let's talk about the joker." He smirked. "He's a clown who laughs a lot and does his makeup terribly. No thank you, next." Judith rolled her eyes.

Over in the kitchen, it was just Carl and Enid. Somehow, they ended up being the only two people who actually decided to stay in the kitchen and eat. It was a little awkward. Carl didn't have much to say, and Enid had way too much to say. They sat in there, going in between making annoying small talk and eating in utter silence for twenty minutes before Enid finally decided to speak up.

"You're obsessed with Beth and it's ruining our friendship. Pass the salt, please."

She shoved some mashed potatoes into her mouth after saying it and didn't even look at him to see his reaction. Carl's mouth had fallen open in shock. He hadn't been expecting her to say anything like that, and he couldn't believe she'd said it so nonchalantly.

"What?"

"You heard me, Carl Grimes!" She screeched, pointing her fork at him threateningly. He sat back in his seat slowly, eyeing her fork and then scanning her face, wondering if she was joking. It was clear that she wasn't. "We haven't had a real conversation that wasn't about Beth in weeks, and hey, it's cool that you like her and all, but we're still supposed to be friends which means that you're still supposed to talk to me about other stuff like...like...I don't know, college? Video games? What you had for dinner? I don't care! I just cannot deal with you basically pretending I don't exist unless you wanna gush about how perfect Beth is!"

"Well...that's fair." He shrugged before slowly leaning closer to the table and picking up his own fork. He began eating again as if nothing had happened, and Enid was in disbelief. She'd known Carl for a long time, yeah, but he was still a tough cookie to bite into, and he could be pretty hard to understand.'

"So...?"

"So, I won't talk about Beth so much." He smiled. "Sorry, I didn't realize it was bothering you so much. Anyways, speaking of crushes, that Henry dude was eyeing you the entire time you were at softball practice the other day..."

"Go on."

********  
"Hoe. Hoe. Hoe." Negan chuckled loudly as he eyed Rick and Michonne. "You couldn't have found jeans any tighter than that?" He questioned as he covered his mouth to keep from laughing too loudly at Rick's skinny jeans. Rick had been...Changing his style up a bit lately. He wanted to stay 'hip', although Michonne reminded him that he wasn't every time he used that outdated word. "And you—" Negan leaned backward to take a look at Michonne's plump behind, looking marvelous in her body-con dress, if he did say so himself. "Whew!" He let a loud breath and then a whistle. "My threesome offer is still on the table, my dear Grimes'" he laughed.

"I think we're good, Negan." Rick sighed, his eyes rolling up to the ceiling as he placed his hands on his hips in his usual fashion. Negan looked toward Michonne and jutted out his lips, giving her the puppy dog eyes. "I've got plenty enough to handle as it is." She smirked, wrapping her arm around Rick's waist.

"You'll give in eventually. You're getting weaker and weaker every time I mention it. I know because I stared at your boobs for five whole minutes earlier and you didn't even hit me this time." He wiggled his brows and stuck his tongue between his teeth.

"Yet." She smiled sarcastically. "This is Maggie's first time hosting. The last thing I want is to put you through another table on her very first go round."

"I'm being civil because she's being civil." Rick shrugged, pointing toward Michonne. "Plus, you've got to be around to coach Judith's soccer team. After the season's over, though," Rick narrowed his eyes, let out an audible growl as he let out a breath, and tilted his head to the side for a moment. "You'll be of no use to us and I will do with you what I please."

Negan bounced on his heels and clapped a few times. "Oh boy, oh goody, I love the sound of that!"

Michonne rolled her eyes as she grabbed Rick's hand and pulled him away. It wasn't an official neighborhood gathering unless Negan damn near sexually harassed someone.


End file.
